Leon Kroll first visited Woodstock in the summer of 1906 to study at the Byrdcliffe art colony. In 1920, Kroll returned to Woodstock, as it was a popular destination for artist’s to spend the summer. In Kroll’s autobiography, A Spoken Memoir, he describes hosting dinners for fellow artists who would summer in Woodstock, including the Henris, Bellowses, and the Speichers. Sotheby’s

What is the Byrdcliffe Colony?

The oldest operating Arts and Crafts Colony in America, the Byrdcliffe Colony, also called the Byrdliffe Arts Colony, was founded in 1902 near Woodstock, New York by Jane Byrd McCall and Ralph Radcliffe Whiteheadand colleagues.

What is the Arts and Crafts Movement?

In reaction to the dehumanizing monotony and standardization of industrial production, The Arts and Crafts Movement arose in the late nineteenth century. Byrdcliffe was created as an experiment in utopian living inspired by the arts and crafts movement.[3]

Surrounded by the Catskill Mountains of New York State, the Byrdcliffe Colony is still in operation today and is located on 300 acres (1.2 km2) with 35 original buildings, all designed in the Arts and Crafts style.

Along with ongoing music, theater and art performances held in the Byrdcliffe Theater, Barn and on property lawns, the Byrdcliffe Colony hosts an Artist-In-Residence program housing over 70 artists each summer. The program accepts writers, composers, and visual artists who practice in a wide variety of fields and media.

Arts and Crafts Movement: US vs UK

According to ArtStory, there are two differing strands of the Arts & Crafts Movement, depending on location:

The Arts & Crafts movement existed under its specific name in the United Kingdom and the United States, and these two strands are often distinguished from each other by their respective attitudes towards industrialization: in Britain, Arts & Crafts artists and designers tended to be either negative or ambivalent towards the role of the machine in the creative process, while Americans tended to embrace the machine more readily. ArtStory,